Huge Announcement!!

My people,

As you may recall, I asked many of you (via Facebook) to think of me for a day, because something big was on the horizon and I was just about to hear back...on like 3 separate occasions. I want you to know that it was not in vain!!! I am so proud to announce that, thanks to the good people of Intermedia Arts, I've been awarded a 2012 Verve Grant for Spoken Word!!!

The VERVE grant program is designed for emerging artists who are ready to achieve their next level of artistic success, and who are interested in developing their abilities to become artistic leaders in their communities. In addition to their grant award, recipients will also participate in a 12-month cohort program that provides community, mentorship, guidance, workshops, and resources throughout the program year. 

Sounds cool, right? It's awesome. I can't wait to see my project come to life. And there's some very cool people involved. I'm looking forward to building with them as well.

I'm going to be creating new works of Spoken Word Poetry that explore different cultural traditions, folks tales/tall tales, and dreams, connecting to my growth as an artist and as a human being. These new works will be documented on my blog here and recorded onto a new album of Poetry that I will duplicate and bring with me to Europe in December! I'm currently connecting with artists and venues there to see what performances we can plan for. If you know anyone in London, Paris or Rome, feel free to give me/them a shout! I'd love to connect with your people there.

Stay tuned, this is going to start picking up pace like whoah.

Thanks and Love,

SEE

A Look at The Subtlety of White Privilige in Literature and World Culture

A while back I was having a conversation about good books. I was telling this woman how I didn't quite dig the opening for this excellent collection of short stories by Mexican Authors, most of which had never been published in English. I mentioned that he said some things that made it feel like he didn't really have a connection to the culture, these authors, their works or genre. She asked if it was because he was racist. I answered "maybe?". 

I don't think I would have talked about it in that way, but she kind of assumed how I might talk about an issue like this. Unfortunate, because without closing me off in that way and putting me in a box, we actually could have had a much more meaningful conversation...

Anyway, she said that white people almost have to try harder to prove themselves in situations like that, and while I agree that there needs to be some forethought to what you're saying as a white man introducing stories of a genre and culture with which you obviously do not participate in, I don't think there's an "unfairness" in that, as she was implying. 

I think that you need to be thoughtful, sensitive and probably learn a good deal about what you're talking about, before talking like an expert about something that's still new to you. Is that something that people of other traditions have to do to contribute to White American culture? Hell yes. Are the people of color expected to bend over backwards and assimilate to White American culture just to fit in? If you could bet on it 24/7 you would be the richest of the 1% (wait a minute...there might be something to that). Are people of color and alternate traditions so easily allowed to assume expertise about things that are new to us? Hell no. Is it a privilege that, as a white, mainstream American, someone can assume and impose an interpretation on a culture or its traditions? I'm afraid so.

It's also a privilege to call people who question these things too quick to "pull the race card". To assume that they're wrong. After all, racism is a power dynamic and privilege is one of the outcomes of that dynamic. There is people who hold power over others. Politically, socially, and Econimically. That privilege is asserted every time they get the benefit of the doubt. As in this circumstance, the benefit of the doubt that this man (me) is an angry person of color, hastily pulling the race card because he doesn't like white people - as well as the benefit of the doubt that an unknown white author (I didn't remember his name and she didn't seem to recognize his work) has to work harder than any author of color in that situation (introducing a book by people of color) because of the unfairness of angry, white-people-haters like me.

This is the language of oppression, of privilege, and it has been created as something subtle so that it can survive. If people had to say, "I think you're worng because your brown" and "I have inherited a sense of entitlement because of the way that our racist country has raised me", it would be hard to argue with the truth. Instead, well meaning, everyday people assume they're in the right about things they don't understand because of what we are taught in this country on the most basic level: That some people are better than others. It's in the schools, it's in the neighborhoods and outlet malls. It's on TV and in our books. Most people don't consiusly believe that some people are better than others of course, but they also don't understand it and how these themes play out in the world around them, nor how their ignorance on the issue contributes to it.

The only way to arm yourself against this nefarious subconcious American and Human phenomona, is to learn. There is classes, books and people to talk to all over who are not enraged, white-people-haters, spewing everything they can just to hurt and demean you because they "don't have it good". Talk to these people, learn from these books and courses and make the world that much better.

Thanks and Love for reading and thinking,

SEE

New EP Release - FALL FORWARD, Plus New Album Announcement

Here it is folks, I've been dropping hints at this for a few weeks and it's finally arrived. My ode to Autumn in the Midwest and to change everywhere. Check out the write up and link below, and above anything, PLEASE LISTEN. It's free, but that doesn't mean it's not worth a whole hell of a lot more than what I'm offering it for. I just want you to have it. I want you to hear it. You can pay for the next album :)
Which leads me to a very important point: THIS EP IS A PRECURSOR TO NEXT YEAR'S FULL LENGTH, 'JAWS OF LIFE'. Serebellum One produced both the upcoming album and the EP. This brisk collection of songs is an example of what we can do together. 'JAWS OF LIFE' is in post production, and it already sounds INCREDIBLE. More to come on that. For now, enjoy this free download with alternate album artwork.

Fresh off producing Heidi Barton Stink’s “A Charming Gut,” penning a knockout guest-verse on Guante & Big Cats’ “You Better Weaponize,” performing in numerous Hip Hop Against Homophobia shows around MN and collaborating with Dameun Strange as the Halloween-flavored geek-pop duo Strange Perspective, Twin Cities MC and producer SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE is set to release two new solo projects, starting with the EP “Fall Forward.”

A collaboration with producer Serebellum One (who has worked with Slug of Atmosphere, I Self Devine, Eyedea, Gene Poole, Unicus of Kanser and other Twin Cities hip hop luminaries), “Fall Forward” is an EP about Autumn: a time of transition, a time for accepting and consciously creating internal, social and political change. A head-nodding tribute to the season, the songs are as much spiritual as they are political, with the smart-ass edge and boundless humanism that has made SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE one of the most underrated artists in a community full of them. “Fall Forward” represents the organic progress of an artist always striving to push boundaries while still paying tribute to the culture’s roots, a smart, community-minded voice refusing to follow trends or stand idly by while wackness and mediocrity flourish.

 

New Music - I Put A Spell On You

WARNING: This track does have magical powers. Without the right protection, you may be subject to it's influence. Any averse affects caused by the release of this sound into the atmosphere are the sole responsibility of the listener. SEE MORE PERSPECTIVE and the BOOMBOX EMPORIUM will not be held responsible for any, hauntings, possessions, time travel or inexhaustible willingness to download and share tracks or any other supernatural phenomena.



I've always loved this song. Whether it was Screamin' Jay Hawkins howlin' with a skull in one hand and a cigarette in the other, Nina Simone or Creedence Clear Water Revival, I...LOVE...THIS...PIECE.

Edit: Here's a video of Dameun Strange and I performing this for our Halloween Extravaganza a couple Halloweens ago for our Strange Perspective project, The Lost Souls Boys Choir. It was a lot of fun and I really wanted to get a solid recording of this. Especially since I hadn't achieved what I hoped for the last time around. If nothing else, this is a step in the right direction. I may spend my life trying to get it right, but I'll have a hell of a time doing it. No pun intended. The musicians featured with Dameun and I in this video are Kahlil Brewington, Bryan Berry and Christopher Cox.



In other news, I have some big announcements coming up, so stay tuned. I should be posting about two or three big projects in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading and listening,

SEE

The Defintive Telling of John Henry's Tale (Recording)

I came up with this for a show my friend and collaborator Dameun Strange put together for the Fringe Festival last year. He asked me if I'd be interested in beat-boxing for a new piece of music he was writing inspired by Langston Hughes. I was honored. And then he asked me to read some of Langston's words...and I was amped. And then I found out he was also creating work inspired by the story of John Henry and the week before the show he asked if I was interested in writing something for that as well. Well, of course I was! So here it is. The Definitive telling...

I dug into the history and varied tellings of this old folk tale and I started seeing all of these connections with this things historically. I found the mountain where John supposedly dug his tunnel and what is said to be his hometown. I found the time he would've have lived in and started drawing parallels. With Harriet Tubman being a very spiritual person and being led to do what what she did in life by what she experienced in her dreams, I thought that this would be the place where John Henry was born. John Henry is a spiritual force, driving the lives of the righteous, those standing up for other people; for what is right. I imagined him as this spiritual and activist leader in this time, taking part in all these historical events. 

This is the way I want people to hear about John Henry. When they tell his story, I want them to recite this. 

Thanks for reading and listening.

New Music - New Vision

In the latest episode of the Boom Box Emporium, we offer another joint from an old Chicago group of mine. My man Insight and I as ESP...after all, that's what you get when you combine insight with seeing more perspective: extra sensory perception.

Back in the day, Insight and I were part of a crew called FREE SCHOOL. We put on shows called the Super Heroes of Sound and we wrote songs like crazy in a studio we considered a sort of "Danger Room" a la X MEN mythology... We did a lot of shows together and at one of those shows in a dark and dank Chicago basement bar, a man emerged from teh shadows with a gift: Beats. That man was Sonus and this is the only song we were able to put down before he disappeared, at least from our awareness. We never heard from him again.

I found this in the archives and was kind of blown away...This beat is just so unique and gorgeous. Lush and crisp and layered and changing and irresistible. I liked my flow, but after listening to it a couple times, I knew this piece deserved an update. So I tweaked the first verse ever so slightly, re-recorded it and wrote a whole new third verse. The hook is exactly the way it was, as is Insight's verse.

Enjoy.

Thanks for listening.

Please stop saying F***tard.

Pretty Please. How did this word get so popular? It sounds so dumb and it makes you look so bad. Seriously, I'm embarrassed for you when you use it. Is it just online or does that word actually come out of your mouth in conversation? *shudders*  

With A Cherry On Top. It's literally impossible for you to use that word and come off as cool, thoughtful or intelligent...It's kind of like you're classifying yourself into whatever group you're trying to classify someone else in, at the same time. Two for one. There's lots of other good reasons not to say it, but number one: it just sounds so. dumb. 

And as long as we're on the topic, here's some other good reasons not to use it:

It's an even more violent version of "retard", which is hurtful enough as it is, thank you very much.

As the son of a woman with Muscular Dystrophy, I learned how the r-word is used in violent, hurtful ways, even though it never even made any sense to me whatsoever...and it will never be funny to me.

Why do people feel like it is their god given right to use words they KNOW (or willfully refuse to understand) HURT and DEGRADE another human being?  Why would you choose to ignore people when they tell you it makes them feel like shit? Because that's not how you meant it? So the impact of that word in society is null and void because of the way you choose others to interpret how you use it? I'm sorry, but just because that's not how you "grew up using the word", doesn't take away all the times that word was used with hate and belittlement. And how is it that you grew up using that word? AS A WAY TO PUT DOWN, DEMEAN or DISREGARD SOMETHING.

...I'm sorry, but it's really not about you. Yet everyone is just supposed to "understand" what you mean; that it's not supposed to be "taken that way" How about trying to understand the hurt and frustration that word causes on a daily basis? To try to understand the people who are being PUT DOWN and DISREGARDED by the use of that word everyday? Where's the understanding for them? Why should anyone have to work so hard to find fun and humor in words that have been used against them every day of their lives? And how many times do you think that word comes along with the many forms of bullying? With a push or a shove or even a bit of spit? Sounds terrible right? Believe me it gets far worse than that...


Why should someone be forced to live in a world where they are constantly being put down? Because "We don't mean it that way"? These hurtful terms (Retard, Gay, Bitch, Pussy) are being hurled out, either violently or casually (with the same emotional impact) everywhere, every minute of every day. At the time I wrote this, there had been over 1200 uses of the r-word since 12am on twitter alone. It's just after one and Twitter had been down worldwide for at least a couple of hours. What about Face Book? And texts? At the water cooler? Are you kidding me?!! Would you consider it ok to casually make fun of your friend by calling them a spic, chink or nigger? If so, we've got way bigger problems to address (and believe me we definitely do). You may not see those words in the same light, but the have THE EXACT SAME EMOTIONAL IMPACT on people who've experienced those words in hateful, belittling ways.


"In closing" (and from a conversation on the topic I just finished on Face Book), I'm simply asking that you not use language that puts down or demeans anyone. What I'm doing is civilly engaging in dialog about what is offensive to me and millions of other people. You are not a victim here, just someone who didn't understand the effect of their words on the people and world around them. There's billions of you, so it's easier not to see. The majority of people can't see the effects of hate language because they don't have to. Someone with disabilities doesn't have that luxury; they're reminded of that every day.

Thank you for reading and thinking,

SEE 

PS (edit) - although this may seem condescending at parts or the whole thing or whatever, this is truly how I feel and it comes from a place of LOVE and RESPECT. A Love and Respect that we all deserve. That's the whole point. Peace